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Calling SimCity Creator a light or casual game doesn't do it justice, because it does require some heavy involvement, especially in the beginning. The later stages of building a city are almost tedious in comparison to the raw, start-up feeling you have upon cracking open a new city in Missions or Free. Even so, there are limitless ways to enhance your city, judging by the many pages of building and assistant silhouettes at the beginning of the game that can be unlocked as you attain more success. Special buildings can be earned and placed to boost morale, causing the population in your city to skyrocket. Here's hoping that SimCity Creator rockets to a good place on the sales charts so more SimCity games make their way to the Wii. SimAnt, I'm waiting for you!!

SimCity Creator is a capable city-building game that will appeal to those who have been waiting for a more traditional sim-style experience for the Wii. There's the same level of depth and customization here that you'd expect from a full-fledged SimCity game, with no sacrifices made to dumb down the game for the broader audience. The interface is user-friendly, for the most part, but whether or not this relatively serious approach to the game will be a hit with Wii owners remains to be seen. We couldn't in good faith recommend this game for children or those with a predilection for mindless mini-games, but Sim gamers will probably enjoy what it has to offer.

It's somewhat flawed, but SimCity Creator still has the core elements that make the SimCity franchise a joy. For those of you who have watched your speck of a city swell into a metropolis know what I'm talking about. And those of you who haven't, well, now would be a good time to start!

I would enjoy SimCity any time, and veterans of this series will love SimCity Creator immensely, while newcomers will enjoy it even as they learn to play this unique city-building simulation. One caveat; I wouldn’t recommend this game if you do not have the time to invest. SimCity Creator will take some serious time if you want to be successful at building and running the city of your dreams.

That said, players who muster the moxy to press on will find a fair bit of enjoyment, as well as some truly challenging strategy gameplay. It’s a hefty-sized package with plenty to do and see. If you’re up for the sort of dry pleasure city building offers, SimCity Creator might be something worth checking out. There are some issues with the controls, much of the gesture gameplay is gratuitous, and the game offers all the perplexity of a chemistry set. But folks looking to role play as mayor might consider SimCity Creator as a rental.

SimCity Creator isn’t a bad game. In fact, taken on its own apart from the rest of the series, it’s actually pretty decent. It retains the essential charm of the franchise and the quintessential “just five more minutes” addictiveness that made the SimCity brand a bona fide time-killer. The problem lies in the simple fact that it simply doesn’t stack up that well next to the superior body of PC iterations. The IR control isn’t as tight as a mouse and the depth in Creator doesn’t hold a candle to 2003’s SimCity 4. Overall, SimCity Creator is not a bad option, but given that better (and cheaper) options exist, Wii owners might want to look to their PC for their SimCity fix instead.

Here is yet another Wii title that exists for no other reason than to fill a perceived market niche on the system. SimCity Creator lacks a great deal of depth in comparison to the recent PC titles, and does little to make up for its failings. The awkward control scheme makes you long for the days of playing SimCity on your SNES, and new features like taking a helicopter ride over your city or the gimmicky “hero buildings” do little to add more than fleeting moments of interest to the terribly dull proceedings. If the Wii is the only gaming system you own (that includes prior generations of hardware) and you absolutely must play a SimCity game, then this might be worth the time. Everyone else, you have much better ways to scratch that urban planning itch.

If you've never played a SimCity game before and have a capable computer, you're better off tracking down an older version. You'll get most of the features, all of the depth, and none of the control issues of SimCity Creator. If the Wii is all you've got, you'll still find a serviceable SimCity game in Creator, but you'll just have to dig a little deeper to find it.

This would have been a perfectly respectable SimCity game if the controls had been given more attention. The deep gameplay options and cool disasters are all here, but the actual creating is a hassle because the remote both places objects and scrolls the map. Why couldn't the nunchuk have been used for the map? The developers missed a good opportunity here because the Wii should be a good system for PC-like sims where the remote replaces the mouse. I like the MySims character designs and I'm all for personality, but advisors should actually provide some advice. Following last year's disappointing SimCity DS, it looks like Electronic Arts might be losing its way with this franchise.

There is no doubt that Sim City Creator is still fun. You might end up spending a little more time selecting your zones due to the controls, as opposed to a simple mouse click, but it otherwise plays very similarly to past incarnations and is a great way to zone out. Unfortunately, due to the shortcomings and bad translations, it's just not as good as it could have been.

By looking at recent review scores for the SimCity franchise, one could question where the franchise will go next. Unfortunately, Creator doesn’t break from the trend, mainly due to its controls and lack of depth. It’s quite easy to see that the game was a quick cash-in for Electronic Arts: though not terrible by any means, the game doesn’t quite capture the vision of a Wii SimCity that we all had in mind. For only 800 Wii Points, it would probably be a better idea to download the SNES version, which was released almost two decades ago. Trust us, it's miles ahead of this one.

Some games run into problems trying to be everything to everyone, but SimCity Creator suffers from the opposite affliction. It doesn’t try to be anything to anyone. Well, that’s one thing it does right.